Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Specification
The specification and drawings have been reviewed and no clear informalities or objections have been noted.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 4-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
In claims 4, 5 and 9, Applicant claims “measured by the following method”. There is a lack of description about what “method” is used for measurement rendering the claim indefinite. Clarification is required.
Claims 4-11 recite the limitation "the condition of sealing". There is insufficient antecedent basis for these limitation in the claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wei (JP 2018076127 A with references made to the machine translation).
Regarding claims 1 and 12-15, Wei discloses a secondary battery pouch film (lines 40-43), comprising
a layered structure wherein at least an outer layer (2), a barrier layer (4), and a sealant layer (3) are structured in that order (see Fig. 1), wherein the sealant layer (3) comprises an extrusion (EC) layer (32) and a polypropylene (PP) layer (3, 31, see lines 305-310 which discloses that layer 3, or the thermoplastic resin film 3, is a polypropylene layer 31), and the extrusion (EC) layer (32) is located on the barrier layer side relative to the polypropylene (PP) layer (as illustrated in annotated Fig. 3 below),
wherein a thickness ratio of the polypropylene (PP) layer to the sealant layer comprising the extrusion (EC) layer and the polypropylene (PP) layer is more than 0.5 (as is the case disclosed in lines 330-336 where the PP layer is 32 microns thick and the EC layer is 4 microns thick),
wherein an upper yield strength (N/mm2) in an MD direction of the sealant layer comprising the extrusion (EC) layer and the polypropylene (PP) layer is 17.50 to 19.99, and an upper yield strength (N/mm2) in a TD direction thereof is 17.00 to 19.99 (see example 2, lines 330-336, which disclose an MD of layer 3 to be 19.4 MPa and a TD of 17.3 MPa).
Wei teaches a polypropylene layer/extrusion layer which comprises a polypropylene/polyethylene copolymer where the ethylene content can be as low as 1% (lines 172-187) which leaves 99% of the copolymer to be propylene. Such a ratio in a copolymer lends itself to a glass transition temperature that is heavily determined by the polypropylene content. Seeing that polypropylene has a glass transition temperature between −20° C. to −10° C, the glass transition temperature of the sealant layer of Wei would exhibit a range that overlaps this range. In other words, while Wei does not explicitly disclose the claimed glass transition temperature, it does teach a range that overlaps the claimed range. As such, arriving at the claimed range would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention. In the case where the claimed ranges "overlap or lie inside ranges disclosed by the prior art" a prima facie case of obviousness exists (see MPEP §2144.05(I)).
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Regarding claim 2, Wei further discloses the sum of the upper yield strength (N/mm.sup.2) in the MD direction and the upper yield strength (N/mm2) in the TD direction of the sealant layer comprising the extrusion (EC) layer and the polypropylene (PP) layer is 34.5 or more and 39.9 or less (as pointed out in the rejection of claim 1 above, the MD + TD of Wei = 19.4+17.3 = 36.7 MPa).
Regarding claim 3, Wei further discloses the upper yield strength (N/mm2) in the MD direction of the sealant layer comprising the extrusion (EC) layer and the polypropylene (PP) layer is more than the upper yield strength (N/mm2) in the TD direction thereof (19.4MPa > 17.3 MPa).
Regarding claims 4-11, Wei teaches a sealant layer comprises a polypropylene layer and an extrusion layer, similar to that of the instant disclosure. Wei teaches that the polypropylene layer is made of polypropylene-base material (up to 99% polypropylene, as disclosed in lines 172-187), similar to that of the instant invention, with a thickness of 32 microns (lines 305-311), similar to that of the instant invention, with an extrusion layer (31) made of polypropylene based material (lines 305-301) similar to that of the instant invention along with a thickness of 4 microns (lines 305-311) similar to that of the instant invention along with MD and TD yield strengths that are nearly identical to that of the instant invention (see lines 330-336, for example).
In claims 4-11, Applicant claims an assortment of physical properties that are exhibited by the sealant layer when sealed at 220C. While Wei does not explicitly teach these claimed properties, it does teach a layered structure nearly identical to that of the instant invention and such physical properties are assumed to be present in Wei.
Relevant Prior Art
US 2014/0377636 – Discloses an outer layer , barrier layer, an EC/modified PP layer on the barrier layer and a PP layer on the EC layer and teaches a ratio of the thickness of the EC and PP layers as claimed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW J MERKLING whose telephone number is (571)272-9813. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday 8am-6pm.
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/MATTHEW J MERKLING/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1725
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